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Windows 7: Monitor stays blank when turning it back on

I am going to preface this by saying that this has *nothing* to do with restoring from sleep or hibernate modes. In searching for an answer to this issue, I found way too much related to that.

My problem is simple. Occasionally (~50% of the time) when I turn the monitor back on after shutting it off, it will stay blank and not really turn back on. It makes no difference how long the monitor has been off. After turning it back on, the power light is green, indicating there is a signal, but the screen is black. Again, the computer has not slept or hibernated. I simply shut off the monitor and later come back to turn it on. The same thing will happen occasionally if Windows shuts the monitor off after the configured time. (I did that last part as a test; I typically do not automatically shut it off.)

I originally thought it was the OS that was hung. However, I was able to go into the start menu and restart ("Start" -> "Right" -> "Right" -> "R"), so I know the OS was there responding to my commands.

Attempts to fix:
- Restart the computer. This worked.
- Shut off the power to the monitor and turn it back on. This works most of the time.
- Lock and unlock Windows. This works after a few tries.
- Hit CTRL-ALT-DEL followed by ESC. This works after a few tries.

So, I have a fairly simple work around now. So this is only a minor annoyance. Hitting CTRL-ALT-DEL then ESC does seem to work. I don't think it is a placebo because I waited 5 minutes and it did not come back, but after 2 cycles of that, it came back. I think that fixes it because it causes full screen refreshes.

Does anyone have any ideas or has anyone seen this before? The drivers are recent, but I noticed this with the clean-install Windows 7 drivers for this card as well. This is a very clean and very recent install (3 days). I never had this problem with Vista 32-bit, the same graphics card, recent drivers, but different CPU/motherboard/memory.

How are you connecting your monitor to your system? Mine connects via the VGA interface (with an adapter on the video card), and I have no problems. I can't test the DVI interface as my monitor only has a VGA input.

merzoa ...my system is practically identical.
I posted the following thoughts in another thread, and even thought it relates more to sleep/wake states, I thought it may be of use, since I suspect that power management features/settings in win7 may be causing hiccups in devices like graphics boards.

This is only a suspicion and nowhere near a certainty!(forgive the length)

My first day posting on the forum... long, and possibly redundant, but I hope it helps somebody with the "Display driver stopped responding and has recovered" Pop-up as well as the Black Screen after wake up issue...

After a new PC build with a fresh install of Windows 7/64bit (build7600)... I saw the pop-up for the 1st time while troubleshooting some nvidia driver updates -- while putting my newly installed 3D apps through their paces, things would go black momentarily, but then come back with the "Display driver stopped..." message. I suspect I had conflicting video driver files or registry settings. ( I was experimenting with more than one driver versions)
All troubles seemed to go away after uninstalling everything nvidia related (everything); running Guru3d.com's 'Driver Sweeper' after a boot to SAFE MODE; ...and finally a regular reboot and fresh install of the latest and greatest nvidia driver (Forceware 191.66)

All was right with the world until...
Black screen with a lonesome mouse arrow pointer after waking the system from sleep. I, like many folks I've read about, hear the system fans/disk powering up as normal, though little to show for it apart from the mouse pointer moving about.
My first impulse was to bring up the 'Windows Task Manager' which I prefer to do using Shift+Ctrl+Esc (rather than Ctrl+Alt+Del) ...I then noticed a subtle screen flicker and then presto, my desktop was back! ...along with the familiar pop-up about "Display driver stopped etc..."
This Task Manager call up worked nicely to resolve the black screen upon wake up trouble, but it lead me to suspect that since the system was coming up fine, but minus the graphics card/driver, there may be something screwy with all the new-fangled power saving features and settings that try to optimize power efficiencies on devices such as cpu/fans/HDs/graphics boards/etc.

So...I seemed to have resolved both my black screen issue AND the "Display driver stopped..." alert by changing an advanced power setting related to the PCI Express slot within 'Power Options'.

i would say its not a windows 7 issue but try a different moniter if you have one and see, if it works then its the monitor but if it doesnt work then its the PC and so you need to system resore if you can

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